Google-watchers may have already head about "Project Athena," a Chrome OS-related experiment of Google's that has appeared in the Chromium source code a few times in the past. Today we got our first official look at the new interface via Francois Beaufort, a Chrome enthusiast who was hired by Google last year after leaking several high-profile Chrome features.

It looks a heck of a lot like Material Design and Android L UI behaviour coming to Chrome OS. Fascinating to see where this is going, but one thing appears to be clear: in the tug of war between Chrome OS and Android, the latter has won.

"Micro apps" (or widgets as the rest of the world calls them) are actually incredibly useful. To display dynamic information on your home screen without having to even tap the screen, let alone launch a particular app, is actually a major missing feature from iOS, IMHO.

Apart from the "obvious" dynamic widgets like news and weather, there's even some useful static widgets like one that displays your phone number. I know, you think *everyone* has their own mobile number memorised, but it's not used that much (give it to people, perhaps quote in an online form to get SMS'es) so I like having it to hand when I need it.

I found "IP Widget" very useful too - lets you display a custom set of info about your phone's net connection. Handy if you're moving between networks and want to check the speed, IP address etc.